Halicarnassus was an ancient Greek city on the southwest coast of Caria, Anatolia (Asia Minor), on a picturesque, advantageous site on the Ceramic Gulf (Gulf of Kos, Gulf of Gökova).
It was the site of the Siege of Halicarnassus, between Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire. It originally occupied only the small island of Zephyria close to the shore, now occupied by the great Bodrum Castle (Castle of St. Peter), built by the Knights of Rhodes in 1404; but in course of time this island was united to the mainland and the city extended so as to incorporate Salmacis, an older town of the Leleges and Carians.The founding of Halicarnassus is debated among various traditions; but they agree in the main point as to its being a Dorian colony, and the figures on its coins, such as the head of Medusa, Athena and Poseidon, or the trident, support the statement that the mother cities were Troezen and Argos. The inhabitants appear to have accepted Anthes as their legendary founder, mentioned by Strabo, and were proud of the title of Antheadae. The Carian name for Halicarnassus has been tentatively identified with Alosδkarnosδ in inscriptions!
At an early period Halicarnassus was a member of the Doric Hexapolis, which included Cos, Cnidus, Lindos, Kameiros and Ialysus. But when one of the citizens, Agasicles, chose to take home the prize tripod which he had won in the Triopian games instead of dedicating it, according to custom, to the Triopian Apollo, the city was cut off from the league. In the early 5th century Halicarnassus was under the sway of Artemisia I of Caria, who made herself famous as a naval commander at the Battle of Salamis. Of Pisindalis, her son and successor, little is known; but Lygdamis, who next attained power, is notorious for having put to death the poet Panyasis and causing Herodotus, possibly the best known of Halicarnassians, to leave his native city.
Macedonian influence
One of her successors, Pixodarus, tried to ally himself with the rising power of Macedon, and is said to have gained the momentary consent of the young Alexander to wed his daughter. The marriage, however, was forbidden by Alexander's father Philip. During the early years of Alexander's campaigns, Memnon, the paramount satrap of Asia Minor, 334 BC when Alexander tried to take the citadel, the narrow bridge over the moat collapsed, resulting in many casualties (as related by the historian Arianos in his biography of Alexander). As he was not able to reduce the citadel, Alexander was forced to leave it blockaded. The ruins of this citadel and the moat are now a tourist attraction in Bodrum.
Alexander handed the government of the city back to the family of Mausolus, as represented by Ada, sister of the latter. Not long afterwards we find the citizens receiving the present of a gymnasium from Ptolemy, and building in his honour a stoa or portico. Halicarnassus never recovered altogether from the disasters of the siege, and Cicero describes it as almost deserted. Baroque artist Johann Elias Ridinger depicted the several stages of siege and taking of the place in a huge copper engraving as one of only two known today from his Alexander set.
